Guitar Lake

I woke up early
even though we were supposed to sleep in and have a more restful morning. TBG slept in which was good. My mind is driving me crazy. I'm worried about what we'll do when we're done hiking. I want to lose more weight--is that my motive for hiking? I hope not! I still wrestle with feeling like a failure for not making the entire 2660 miles. I want to quit and go home and yet, I want to keep hiking. Oye Vey. I'm in a pickle....

Since I bought the T-shirt, we HAD to hike Mt. Whitney. So we decided to hike to Guitar Lake where we'll spend the night and leave our gear there so we'd have a light pack for our day hike up the mountain tomorrow. But after seeing all the marmots and chipmunks we opted to protect our gear by carrying it. We will leave the 20lb bear canister though. It is so beautiful at the Lake. It's someplace I didn't think I'd ever see and here we are.

Yesterday we met a thru hiker, Rainbow Bright. A cute young gal solo hiking--completely solo, she won't hike with anyone, period. Today we met her again as she came down from Mt. Whitney. She was very honest ("it's hard, the last mile is really tough") and encouraging (it's so beautiful and cool on top!).

We met some other hikers, two Asian guys, at Cottonwood pass. They keep showing up on our path. Today we met Fire Hazard too, another thru hiker. The bulk of thru hikers has passed us by now so it's nice to see there are still a few lingering behind with us. It's not too hard to tell PCT hikers from the John Muir Trail (JMT) and other vacation hikers. PCT hikers are much dirtier and rough looking.

The water is more plentiful, thankfully, but as a result, so are the bugs. Becky's oils seem to help but I worry about attracting bears. Heck with it. The bugs are much more plentiful and persistent!

It's so nice to have camp set up early and be able to sit outside to journal and just relax. This is the first time since we left home that we've done that. We always just fall into bed at night, exhausted!

It's been a great day. Why can't they all be like this?

We still love hiking!
KOKO & The Bald Guy

764.34 off trail to Guitar Lake
LL: 36.57154   -118.31340
UTM: 11S 382483    4048147N
Elevation: 11,454

Looking ahead

Still not sure what kind of bird this is, but she and her 5 babies allowed me to follow them around and get quite close.

Sometimes the trail was difficult to find since there are no footprints on rock.

The marmots were very welcoming. So abundant and welcoming in fact, that we opted NOT to leave our gear there unattended.

Our camp at Guitar Lake.

The different sunlight made the mountains look different during various times of the day.

A different view of our camp. Mountains on one side, the lake on the other. So beautiful. See the other hikers on the right? They were out in the cold lake swimming. Not for long!

Reflection of the mountains in the lake with the moon. Photos can't capture the beauty.

Hearts come in all sizes and locations